"Let me add, that it is the great desideratum, by which this form of Government can be rescued from the opprobrium under which it has so long labored, and be recommended to the esteem and adoption of mankind." Federalist 10, James Madison

BREAKING: Just when you thought it couldn't, fracking in the U.S. is about to get worse -- and with government approval. The Department of Interior's Bureau of Land Management just released new rules for fracking on our public lands that would give gas companies the right to drill without much-needed protections for public health. The BLM's new rules fail to require full public disclosure of toxic chemicals, baseline water testing or setback requirements of wells from homes and schools.

Fracking our public lands will affect millions of people who live, work and go to school near (or even above) the areas where leases will take place. It is unconscionable for the government to pass new regulations that are fundamentally inadequate to protect our health and safety.

Fracking is a dirty and dangerous process. The proposed BLM rules fail to take obvious steps to provide even minimal protections.

President Obama pledged to do more to combat climate change for the sake of our children and our future in his 2013 State of the Union speech, but the new rules will allow gas companies to place wells dangerously close to children and use toxic chemicals without disclosing them to the public. The Department of Interior's data on potential federal oil and gas leases in six western states shows that more than 1,400 public schools lie within one mile of potential drilling activity.

These rules are a gift to the gas companies, who met repeatedly with high-ranking officials before this rule was released.¹ The provisions help the gas corporations profit, while falling short in employing the most basic recommendations of the president's own shale gas advisory committee, which advocated for transparency, environmental safeguards and pollution monitoring for fracking. Without clear safeguards for public health, no new areas should be opened up to new drilling permits.